New Orleans Saints: Eli Apple’s deal with Raiders falls through

The former New Orleans Saints cornerback Eli Apple will be a free agent once again as his deal with the Las Vegas Raiders fell through.

Despite watching former cornerback Eli Apple walk earlier this offseason, the New Orleans Saints already have four cornerbacks on their roster. They happily watched Apple leave instead of paying him the money he likely requested.

Well, it turns out that Apple will not be playing in Las Vegas after all. After initially agreeing to a deal with the recently-moved franchise, Apple will apparently be hitting the open market again according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Entering his fifth year in the league, the former Ohio State defensive back will be seeking a new home. After two years in New Orleans and a dip in performance towards the latter half of his time with the team, Apple will be entering a relatively dry market.

Last season, Apple played and started in 15 games. That one game he missed due to injury, he, in theory, lost his starting spot as well. Both former Giants, Janoris Jenkins, a more veteran back, came in and replaced him to end the season and enter the Wild Card round.

Apple had 58 tackles and one quarterback hit.

While oftentimes giving up big-yardage plays, Apple failed to secure a single interception in all of 2019. While that’s not the most pressing concern, Apple ability to hang with even moderately above-average receiver sput his chance to return to the Big Easy in question.

That, and the fact that he had the most penalties for the most yards on the team according to The Football Database, is why it’ll be unlikely that he’ll have even a remote shot at coming back to NOLA.

Either way, Apple parted ways on good terms so there’s always a chance. Both Apple and now Bengals’ Dre Kirkpatrick have hit the market in the last few days. Expect CB-needy teams to jump all over them at the right price.